围观

So I have a Chinese tutor that comes by a couple times a week and attempts to teach me this God forsaken language. The book I'm studying from is translated to Speak Mandarin, Talk About Culture. I don't know why I've chosen this book to study from. I find Chinese culture a painful topic. Especially in Mandarin.

Anyway, a couple weeks ago we were reading about 管闲事 (guan xian shi) and 围观 (wei guan). 管闲事 translates as 'mind other's business' or 'make everyone's business one's own'. 围观 is to 'surround and watch' or 'encircle'. These are both common activities in China. At first I thought it was just because I was a foreigner that people always surrounded me when I bought food, for instance. However, a number of events have happened that have enlightened me to the fact that the Chinese butt in to every situation. Except maybe some of the important ones.

The other day I was on my bus going to work. I ride the double decker bus. Anyway, a bus in front of us pulled away from the stop and a car behind it ran into it. This was on one of the most crowded streets in Shanghai. The bus was pulled across the two lanes, with only a little space on the right to pull through. Both the bus driver and the car driver got out of their vehicles and started yelling at each other. Between my bus and the bus that had been hit was one other regular decker bus and about three other cars. A huge crowd gathered in the middle of the street to watch the fight between the bus driver and the car driver. Eventually a couple of cops arrived at the scene. The entire time the bus in front of mine was trying it's best to squeeze by the little space allowed on the right side of stopped bus. After about ten minutes it succeeded. The three cars behind that bus followed it. Other cars started to pull around my bus and get by. My bus couldn't squeeze through the space on the right of the street because the branches from the trees surrounding the street hang too low, and if attempted, my fellow passengers and I on the second floor of the bus would be taken out by the trees. So my bus pulled across the road to the left near a large stream of oncoming traffic. Of course, it couldn't pass on the left b/c of the large stream of oncoming traffic. So it just ended up blocking traffic on my side of the road further. We sat like that for another 5 minutes or so with people screaming and honking horns and 100 people in my bus pressed up against the windows watching the scene until a police officer realized what was going on and had the bus that had been hit move. I wasn't too late for work.

This weekend I was walking down the street when a guy in front of me grabbed his girlfriend by the hair and threw her into a street advertisement where the characters for "Creating a More Civilized City Area" were written. People kind of slowed down to watch. She put up a fight for a bit and then became submissive. Not even the police officers standing by watching did anything.

Last night I watched a German film called "Stroszek". It's about a man who is released from prison and comes to the US with his girlfriend to start a new life in Wisconsin. They confiscate his pet bird at customs. His mobile home is sold in auction when he can't pay for it. His girlfriend begins prostituting herself to truck drivers and eventually runs off with a couple of them to Vancouver. He steels a tow truck and holds up a convenience store for only $32 and a frozen turkey. He ends up in an amusement area that has a dancing chicken, a rabbit that drives a toy fire engine, and a rooster that plays the piano. He rides the ski lift around once and then shoots himself at the realization of what has become of his American dream. I don't think I've ever been so homesick before.